1. Technical Field
The invention generally relates to a method for informing a user of the formatting that has been applied to specified data entered into a processing system. More particularly, the invention pertains to a method of the above type, wherein a widget is included in a user interface associated with the processing system to provide a display of the formatted data. Even more particularly, the invention pertains to a method of the above type wherein the widget enables a user to identify and select an alternative valid format, when available, for the specified data.
2. Description of Related Art
When data specified by a user is entered into a data processor or processing system, the system may need to format the data, such as by placing additional data elements proximate to it. Typically, this is done to enable the system to process the data, and generally requires the system to recognize certain characteristics or attributes of the entered data. The data is then formatted in accordance with the recognized characteristics. Thus, it will be readily apparent that significant problems can arise if the processing system makes an inaccurate assumption about the nature or characteristics of entered data.
As an example, the RPG (Report Program Generator) programming language has a wizard for use in generating source code such as Definition specifications. The wizard is adapted to receive data values that are constants, but may also receive data variables. In formatting data for the wizard, constants must be placed within, or wrapped in, quotation marks. Accordingly, if the RPG wizard determines that a data entry is a constant, a default format will be applied to the data entry, whereby the entry will be wrapped in quotation marks. On the other hand, variable data entries must not be wrapped in quotation marks. A different default format is therefore applied to detected variables, in order to achieve this result.
Unfortunately, certain comparatively common data values, entered into the RPG wizard as variables by a user, are frequently interpreted by the RPG wizard to be constants. When this occurs, an incorrect default format is applied to the data, causing the RPG system to process the data using the wrong logic. Moreover, at present a user may not initially realize that the entered data has been formatted incorrectly. As a result, the RPG wizard could generate over 100 lines of erroneous code or the like, before the user became aware of the problem in formatting.
A further example of incorrect data formatting is illustrated by the calendar function of Lotus Notes, Rev. 6. When creating a new calendar item, the user can specify the time for a meeting. If the user specifies only 3:00 for the start time, the time will be ambiguous, unless the processing system selects either 3:00 “a.m.” or 3:00 “p.m.” as a default. If “a.m.” was selected automatically as a default, the time would still be inaccurately displayed, if “p.m.” was intended. However, the user would not be informed of the error until a message was generated at the wrong time. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for dynamically updating data entry in a user interface.